definition of presentation layer

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Presentation Layer in OSI model

Prerequisite : OSI Model

Introduction : Presentation Layer is the 6th layer in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. This layer is also known as Translation layer, as this layer serves as a data translator for the network. The data which this layer receives from the Application Layer is extracted and manipulated here as per the required format to transmit over the network. The main responsibility of this layer is to provide or define the data format and encryption. The presentation layer is also called as Syntax layer since it is responsible for maintaining the proper syntax of the data which it either receives or transmits to other layer(s).

Functions of Presentation Layer :

The presentation layer, being the 6th layer in the OSI model, performs several types of functions, which are described below-

• Presentation layer format and encrypts data to be sent across the network.
• This layer takes care that the data is sent in such a way that the receiver will understand the information (data) and will be able to use the data efficiently and effectively.
• This layer manages the abstract data structures and allows high-level data structures (example- banking records), which are to be defined or exchanged.
• This layer carries out the encryption at the transmitter and decryption at the receiver.
• This layer carries out data compression to reduce the bandwidth of the data to be transmitted (the primary goal of data compression is to reduce the number of bits which is to be transmitted).
• This layer is responsible for interoperability (ability of computers to exchange and make use of information) between encoding methods as different computers use different encoding methods.
• This layer basically deals with the presentation part of the data.
• Presentation layer, carries out the data compression (number of bits reduction while transmission), which in return improves the data throughput.
• This layer also deals with the issues of string representation.
• The presentation layer is also responsible for integrating all the formats into a standardized format for efficient and effective communication.
• This layer encodes the message from the user-dependent format to the common format and vice-versa for communication between dissimilar systems.
• This layer deals with the syntax and semantics of the messages.
• This layer also ensures that the messages which are to be presented to the upper as well as the lower layer should be standardized as well as in an accurate format too.
• Presentation layer is also responsible for translation, formatting, and delivery of information for processing or display.
• This layer also performs serialization (process of translating a data structure or an object into a format that can be stored or transmitted easily).

Features of Presentation Layer in the OSI model: Presentation layer, being the 6th layer in the OSI model, plays a vital role while communication is taking place between two devices in a network.

List of features which are provided by the presentation layer are:

• Presentation layer could apply certain sophisticated compression techniques, so fewer bytes of data are required to represent the information when it is sent over the network.
• If two or more devices are communicating over an encrypted connection, then this presentation layer is responsible for adding encryption on the sender’s end as well as the decoding the encryption on the receiver’s end so that it can represent the application layer with unencrypted, readable data.
• This layer formats and encrypts data to be sent over a network, providing freedom from compatibility problems.
• This presentation layer also negotiates the Transfer Syntax.
• This presentation layer is also responsible for compressing data it receives from the application layer before delivering it to the session layer (which is the 5th layer in the OSI model) and thus improves the speed as well as the efficiency of communication by minimizing the amount of the data to be transferred.

Working of Presentation Layer in the OSI model : Presentation layer in the OSI model, as a translator, converts the data sent by the application layer of the transmitting node into an acceptable and compatible data format based on the applicable network protocol and architecture.  Upon arrival at the receiving computer, the presentation layer translates data into an acceptable format usable by the application layer. Basically, in other words, this layer takes care of any issues occurring when transmitted data must be viewed in a format different from the original format. Being the functional part of the OSI mode, the presentation layer performs a multitude (large number of) data conversion algorithms and character translation functions. Mainly, this layer is responsible for managing two network characteristics: protocol (set of rules) and architecture.

Presentation Layer Protocols : Presentation layer being the 6th layer, but the most important layer in the OSI model performs several types of functionalities, which makes sure that data which is being transferred or received should be accurate or clear to all the devices which are there in a closed network. Presentation Layer, for performing translations or other specified functions, needs to use certain protocols which are defined below –

• Apple Filing Protocol (AFP): Apple Filing Protocol is the proprietary network protocol (communications protocol) that offers services to macOS or the classic macOS. This is basically the network file control protocol specifically designed for Mac-based platforms.
• Lightweight Presentation Protocol (LPP): Lightweight Presentation Protocol is that protocol which is used to provide ISO presentation services on the top of TCP/IP based protocol stacks.
• NetWare Core Protocol (NCP): NetWare Core Protocol is the network protocol which is used to access file, print, directory, clock synchronization, messaging, remote command execution and other network service functions.
• Network Data Representation (NDR): Network Data Representation is basically the implementation of the presentation layer in the OSI model, which provides or defines various primitive data types, constructed data types and also several types of data representations.
• External Data Representation (XDR): External Data Representation (XDR) is the standard for the description and encoding of data. It is useful for transferring data between computer architectures and has been used to communicate data between very diverse machines. Converting from local representation to XDR is called encoding, whereas converting XDR into local representation is called decoding.
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL): The Secure Socket Layer protocol provides security to the data that is being transferred between the web browser and the server. SSL encrypts the link between a web server and a browser, which ensures that all data passed between them remains private and free from attacks.

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presentation layer

• Andrew Froehlich, West Gate Networks

What is the presentation layer?

The presentation layer resides at Layer 6 of the Open Systems Interconnection ( OSI ) communications model and ensures that communications that pass through it are in the appropriate form for the recipient application. In other words, the presentation layer presents the data in a readable format from an application layer perspective.

For example, a presentation layer program could format a file transfer request in binary code to ensure a successful file transfer . Because binary is the most rudimentary of computing languages, it ensures that the receiving device can decipher and translate it into a format the application layer understands and expects.

How the presentation layer works

Once the application layer passes data meant for transport to another device in a certain format, the presentation layer then prepares this data in the most appropriate format the receiving application can understand.

Common data formats include the following:

• American Standard Code for Information Interchange and Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code for text;
• JPEG , GIF and TIFF for images; and
• MPEG, MIDI and QuickTime for video.

Encryption and decryption of data communications are also performed at the presentation layer. Here, encryption methods and keys exchange between the two communicating devices. Only the sender and receiver can properly encode and decode data so it returns to a readable format.

The presentation layer can serialize -- or translate -- more complex application data objects into a storable and transportable format. This helps to rebuild the object once it arrives at the other side of the communications stream. The presentation layer also deserializes the data stream and places it back into an object format that the application can understand by the application.

The tool that manages Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP ) is an example of a program that loosely adheres to the presentation layer of OSI.

Although it's technically considered an application-layer protocol per the TCP/IP model , HTTP includes presentation layer services within it. HTTP works when the requesting device forwards user requests passed to the web browser onto a web server elsewhere in the network.

HTTP receives a return message from the web server that includes a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions ( MIME ) header. The MIME header indicates the type of file -- text, video, or audio -- that has been received so that an appropriate player utility can present the file to the user.

Functions of the presentation layer

• ensures proper formatting and delivery to and from the application layer;
• performs data encryption; and
• manages serialization of data objects.

Editor's note: This article was republished in January 2023 to improve the reader experience.

Continue Reading About presentation layer

• What is the difference between TCP/IP model vs. OSI model?
• Data and file formatting

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  Layer 6 Presentation Layer

De/Encryption, Encoding, String representation

The presentation layer (data presentation layer, data provision level) sets the system-dependent representation of the data (for example, ASCII, EBCDIC) into an independent form, enabling the syntactically correct data exchange between different systems. Also, functions such as data compression and encryption are guaranteed that data to be sent by the application layer of a system that can be read by the application layer of another system to the layer 6. The presentation layer. If necessary, the presentation layer acts as a translator between different data formats, by making an understandable for both systems data format, the ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) used.

OSI Layer 6 - Presentation Layer

The presentation layer is responsible for the delivery and formatting of information to the application layer for further processing or display. It relieves the application layer of concern regarding syntactical differences in data representation within the end-user systems. An example of a presentation service would be the conversion of an EBCDIC-coded text computer file to an ASCII-coded file. The presentation layer is the lowest layer at which application programmers consider data structure and presentation, instead of simply sending data in the form of datagrams or packets between hosts. This layer deals with issues of string representation - whether they use the Pascal method (an integer length field followed by the specified amount of bytes) or the C/C++ method (null-terminated strings, e.g. "thisisastring\0"). The idea is that the application layer should be able to point at the data to be moved, and the presentation layer will deal with the rest. Serialization of complex data structures into flat byte-strings (using mechanisms such as TLV or XML) can be thought of as the key functionality of the presentation layer. Encryption is typically done at this level too, although it can be done on the application, session, transport, or network layers, each having its own advantages and disadvantages. Decryption is also handled at the presentation layer. For example, when logging on to bank account sites the presentation layer will decrypt the data as it is received.[1] Another example is representing structure, which is normally standardized at this level, often by using XML. As well as simple pieces of data, like strings, more complicated things are standardized in this layer. Two common examples are 'objects' in object-oriented programming, and the exact way that streaming video is transmitted. In many widely used applications and protocols, no distinction is made between the presentation and application layers. For example, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), generally regarded as an application-layer protocol, has presentation-layer aspects such as the ability to identify character encoding for proper conversion, which is then done in the application layer. Within the service layering semantics of the OSI network architecture, the presentation layer responds to service requests from the application layer and issues service requests to the session layer. In the OSI model: the presentation layer ensures the information that the application layer of one system sends out is readable by the application layer of another system. For example, a PC program communicates with another computer, one using extended binary coded decimal interchange code (EBCDIC) and the other using ASCII to represent the same characters. If necessary, the presentation layer might be able to translate between multiple data formats by using a common format. Wikipedia

• Data conversion
• Character code translation
• Compression
• Encryption and Decryption

The Presentation OSI Layer is usually composed of 2 sublayers that are:

CASE common application service element

SASE specific application service element

Layer 7   Application Layer

Layer 6   presentation layer, layer 5   session layer, layer 4   transport layer, layer 3   network layer, layer 2   data link layer, layer 1   physical layer.

Presentation Layer

Last Edited

What is the Presentation Layer?

Presentation Layer is the Layer 6 of the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model . The presentation layer structures data that is passed down from the application layer into a format suitable for network transmission. This layer is responsible for data encryption, data compression, character set conversion, interpretation of graphics commands, and so on. The network redirector also functions at this layer.

Presentation Layer functions

• Translation:  Before being transmitted, information in the form of characters and numbers should be changed to bit streams. Layer 6 is responsible for interoperability between encoding methods as different computers use different encoding methods. It translates data between the formats the network requires and the format the computer.
• Encryption:  Encryption at the transmitter and decryption at the receiver
• Compression:  Data compression to reduce the bandwidth of the data to be transmitted. The primary role of  data compression  is to reduce the number of bits to be transmitted. Multimedia files, such as audio and video, are bigger than text files and compression is more important.

Role of Presentation Layer in the OSI Model

This layer is not always used in network communications because its functions are not always necessary. Translation is only needed if different types of machines need to talk with each other. Encryption is optional in communication. If the information is public there is no need to encrypt and decrypt info. Compression is also optional. If files are small there is no need for compression.

Explaining Layer 6 in video

Most real-world protocol suites, such as TCP/IP , do not use separate presentation layer protocols. This layer is mostly an abstraction in real-world networking.

An example of a program that loosely adheres to layer 6 of OSI is the tool that manages the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) — although it’s technically considered an application-layer protocol per the TCP/IP model.

However, HTTP includes presentation layer services within it. HTTP works when the requesting device forwards user requests passed to the web browser onto a web server elsewhere in the network.

It receives a return message from the web server that includes a multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) header. The MIME header indicates the type of file – text, video, or audio – that has been received so that an appropriate player utility can be used to present the file to the user.

In short, the presentation layer

Makes sure that data which is being transferred or received should be accurate or clear to all the devices which are there, in a closed network.

• ensures proper formatting and delivery to and from the application layer;
• performs data encryption; and
• manages serialization of data objects.

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Presentation Layer: What It Is, Design Issues, Functionalities

Description and Functions of Presentation Layer in the OSI model: In this tutorial, we are going to learn what the Presentation layer is and the Functions of the Presentation Layer in the OSI model in Computer Networking. We will also discuss the Design issues with the Presentation Layer and the working of the Presentation Layer with the help of its diagram. By Monika Jha Last updated : May 05, 2023

What is Presentation Layer?

The Presentation Layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information exchanged between two communicating devices.

• The presentation layer takes care that the data is sent in that way the receiver of the data will understand the information (data) and will be able to use the data.
• Languages that are syntax can be different from the two communicating machines. In this condition, the presentation layer plays the role of translator between them.
• It is possible for two machines to communicate with different data representations, data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way.
• These abstract data structures will be managed by the presentation layer and this layer allows higher-level data structures (For example banking records), to be defined and exchanged.

This figure shows the relationship of the presentation layer to the session layer and application layer.

Design Issues with Presentation Layer

The following are the design issues with presentation layer:

• To manage and maintain the Syntax and Semantics of the information transmitted.
• Encoding data in a standard agreed-upon way just like a string, double, date, etc.
• It Performs Standard Encoding scheme on the wire.

Functionalities of the Presentation Layer

Specific functionalities of the presentation layer are as follows:

1. Translation

• The processes or running programs in two machines are usually exchanging the information in the form of numbers, character strings and so on before being transmitted. The information should be changed to bitstreams because different computers use different encoding schemes.
• The Presentation layer is responsible for compatibility between these encoding methods.
• The Presentation layer at the sender's side changes the information from its sender dependent format.
• The Presentation layer at the receiving machine changes the common format into its receivers dependent format.

Example: Convert ASCII code to EBCDIC code.

2. Encryption

• The system must be able to assure privacy regarding the message or information as it also carries sensitive information.
• Encryption means that the sender transforms the original information or message to another form, this data after encryption is known as the ciphertext and this ciphertext sends the resulting message out over the network.
• Decryption concerned with the transform of the message back to its original form. This decrypted data is known as plain text.

3. Compression

• Data Compression means reduces the number of bits to be transmitted by this reduce the bandwidth of the data.
• Data Compression becomes particularly important in the transmission of multimedia such as audio, video, text, etc.

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What is the Presentation Layer in Programming?

Trevor Page

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The presentation layer is one of the three main layers in object-oriented programming.

The three main layers include:

• Presentation Layer
• Business Layer

Now, these three layers are typically related to enterprise web applications. It's a design pattern used to help separate your code out in three distinct areas that (if need be) can easily be switched out with another programming language or technology.

So if you keep all of your presentation layer code in one area of your application, switching presentation layer technologies shouldn't be too difficult.

Same rules apply to the business and data layers. If you separated your code out properly, switching databases shouldn't be too big of an issue.

Having said that, we'll be focusing on the presentation layer.

The four big players (in terms of technology) in the presentation layer are as follows:

Let’s dive into the overviews of each of these big players, shall we?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a technology used to communicate with web browsers. All browsers follow the rules laid out in HTML (currently in its 5th iteration).

HTML defines a bunch of different HTML elements known as tags that are put together to make up the basic layout of a web page. These tags are used to define things like the title of the webpage (which appears in the tab of your browser), the actual text that appears on the page, images, buttons and more.

Thankfully HTML isn’t too tough to learn as it’s more of a game of memorizing the most popular tags and using them to create your simple web pages. HTML is not a programming language, as it doesn’t define variables, data types, control structure or the like. This is also what makes it fairly easy to learn.

We’ll be diving into examples of HTML “code” later, so stay tuned.

CSS (cascading style sheets) is used to add some “pizazz” to your web pages. CSS is used to add a design look and feel to your web pages through the use of its cascading rules. We won’t get into the exact rules that CSS uses to apply its designs just yet, but again, stay tuned for a more in depth explanation.

All you need to know is that CSS is used to make a web page look nice. You can use it to choose which parts of the web page should be which color, how big or small elements should be, what fonts should be used and more.

If you’ve ever landed on a web page that wasn’t able to properly load its CSS, you’d likely think that the website was completely broken. It is often fixed by forcing the page to reload and then the CSS usually gets picked up the second time and everything loads properly and the website goes back to looking great. This situation is quite rare, but I thought I’d mention it because it’s a great example of just how powerful CSS is.

JavaScript is used to make your web pages interactive. It allows you to put some real programming functionality into web pages (as HTML is not a programming language and thus cannot add real programming elements to a page).

Examples of what JavaScript can do is when you’re logging into an application and you forget to provide information in one of the fields. JavaScript can detect that you’ve forgotten to type in your username or password and can provide you with a prompt explaining that you need to fill in your username and password before you can continue.

JavaScript shouldn’t be confused with Java, as they are two different technologies. Java is part of the business layer and has no place in the presentation layer. Java is known as a server side language, as it exists and runs on servers. JavaScript is known as a client side technology, and thus lives where the “clients” are, which is inside the actual web browsers.

A good way to think of the difference between the two languages is that when you land on a web page and it loads in your browser, it will also load any JavaScript code inside the page and you’ll actually be able to access that code and read it. Whereas, you’d never be able to read the Java code, as it’s not loaded in your browser because it’s a server side technology.

That simple distinction between the two languages makes for two very different languages in terms of their use and functionality.

The syntax for JavaScript, however, is fairly similar to Java. This is nice since you’ll be able to look at a piece of JavaScript code and more or less understand what’s going on. So you should be able to pick up the JavaScript language a lot quicker if you already have a good command of the Java language.

JQuery is a technology that’s used in tandem with JavaScript. JQuery makes your life as a web programmer so much easier for one reason, it allows you to write code once and have it work across all the browsers.

In today’s world we have so many browsers that can be downloaded for free and used to peruse the web. This actually makes building websites a bit challenging, as every browser has made up their own minds on how to “render” an HTML web page.

This means that a webpage loaded on Safari might not look the same as if it’s loaded on Internet Explorer, or Firefox, or Chrome.

These inconsistencies drive web programmers crazy, so that’s why jQuery was introduced. It allows you to write your JavaScript in a sort of “browser agnostic” way. You can write it once, and jQuery will execute the code appropriately depending on which browser it’s loaded it. VERY COOL!

The best part of all of these technologies is that they are all free to use.

And thankfully, they are also free to learn via these tutorials!

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Presentation Layer: Protocols, Examples, Services | Functions of Presentation Layer

Presentation Layer is the 6th layer in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model where all application programmer consider data structure and presentation, beyond of simply sending the data into form of datagram otherwise packets in between the hosts. Now, we will explain about what is presentation layer with its protocols, example, service ; involving with major functions of presentation Layer with ease. At the end of this article, you will completely educate about What is Presentation Layer in OSI Model without any hassle.

What is Presentation Layer?

Presentation layer is capable to handle abstract data structures, and further it helps to defined and exchange of higher-level data structures.

Presentation Layer Tutorial Headlines:

Let’s get started,   functions of presentation layer.

Presentation layer performs various functions in the OSI model ; below explain each one – 

Protocols of Presentation Layer

Example of presentation layer protocols:.

Here, we will discuss all examples of presentation layer protocols; below explain each one –  

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) : MIME protocol was introduced by Bell Communications in 1991, and it is an internet standard that provides scalable capable of email for attaching of images, sounds and text in a message.

Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) : This protocol is used to make connection with Usenet server and transmit all newsgroup articles in between system over internet.

Apple Filing Protocol (AFP ) : AFP protocol is designed by Apple company for sharing all files over the entire network .

NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) : NCP is a Novell client server model protocol that is designed especially for Local Area Network (LAN). It is capable to perform several functions like as file/print-sharing, clock synchronization, remote processing and messaging.

Network Data Representation (NDR) : NDR is an data encoding standard, and it is implement in the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE).

Tox : The Tox protocol is sometimes regarded as part of both the presentation and application layer , and it is used for sending peer-to-peer instant-messaging as well as video calling.

eXternal Data Representation (XDR) : This protocol provides the description and encoding of entire data, and  it’s main goal is to transfer data in between dissimilar computer architecture.

Presentation Layer Services

Design issues with presentation layer, faqs (frequently asked questions), what is meant by presentation layer in osi model.

Presentation Layer is the 6th layer in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model that is the lowest layer, where all application programmer consider data structure and presentation, beyond of simply sending the data into form of datagram otherwise packets in between the hosts.

What protocols are used in the presentation layer?

Can you explain some presentation layer examples, what are the main functions of the presentation layer, what are services of presentation layer in osi.

Presentation layer has a responsibility for formatting, translation, and delivery of the information for getting to process otherwise display .

Now, i hope that you have completely learnt about what is presentation layer with its protocols, example, service ; involving with major functions of presentation Layer with ease. If this post is useful for you, then please share it along with your friends, family members or relatives over social media platforms like as Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, and more.

Also Read: Data Link Layer: Protocols, Examples | Functions of Data Link Layer

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Presentation Layer

• HTTP Protocol
• FTP Protocol
• SMTP Protocol
• POP Protocol
• SNMP Protocol
• Electronic Mail
• MIME Protocol
• World Wide Web
• DNS Protocol

In this tutorial, we will be covering the Presentation layer of the OSI reference model in Computer Networks.

The presentation layer is layer-6 of the OSI reference model . This layer mainly responds to the service requests from the application layer(that is layer-7) and issues the service requests to layer-6 that is (the session layer).

This layer mainly acts as the translator of the network. Another name of the presentation layer is the Syntax layer.

The primary goal of this layer is to take care of the syntax and semantics of the information exchanged between two communicating systems. The presentation layer takes care that the data is sent in such a way that the receiver will understand the information(data) and will be able to use the data. Languages(syntax) can be different between the two communicating systems. Under this condition, the presentation layer plays a role as translator.

In order to make it possible for computers with different data representations to communicate, the data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way. The presentation layer manages these abstract data structures and allows higher-level data structures(eg: banking records), to be defined and exchanged.

We can say that the presentation layer may represent or encode the data in various ways (like data compression, data encryption). But the receiving device mainly decodes or converts the encoded message into its original form.

For the same data, the sender and receiver must need to agree upon a messaging format that is commonly known as the Presentation format.

Also, the presentation layer is a part of the operating system that mainly converts the data from one presentation format to another presentation format.

Protocols used at the Presentation layer

Given below are some of the protocols used at the presentation layer:

AFP(Apple filling protocol)

Secure Socket Layer(SSL)

FTP(file transfer protocol)

Lightweight Presentation Protocol(LPP)

SSH(Secure shell)

Functions of Presentation Layer

Translation: Before being transmitted, the information in the form of characters and numbers should be changed to bitstreams. The presentation layer is responsible for interoperability between encoding methods as different computers use different encoding methods. It translates data between the formats the network requires and the format of the computer.

Encryption: It carries out encryption at the transmitter and decryption at the receiver.

Compression: It carries out data compression to reduce the bandwidth of the data to be transmitted. The primary role of Data compression is to reduce the number of bits to be 0transmitted. It is important in transmitting multimedia such as audio, video, text, etc.

Design Issues with Presentation Layer

To manage and maintain the Syntax and Semantics of the information transmitted.

Encoding data in a standard agreed-upon way. Eg: String, double, date, etc.

Perform Standard Encoding on the wire.

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OSI model - What's the presentation and session layer for?

So I feel I pretty well understand the application layer, and everything below (and including) the transport layer.

The session and presentation layers, though, I don't fully understand. I've read the simplistic descriptions in Wikipedia, but it doesn't have an example of why separating out those layers is useful.

• What is the session layer? What does it do, and under what circumstances is it better to have a session layer than simply talk to the transport with your app?
• What is the presentation layer? (same questions as above)

7 Answers 7

The session layer is meant to store states between two connections, like what we use cookies for when working with web programming.

The presentation layer is meant to convert between different formats. This was simpler when the only format that was worried about was character encoding, ie ASCII and EBCDIC. When you consider all of the different formats that we have today(Quicktime, Flash, Pdf) centralizing this layer is out of the question.

TCP/IP doesn't make any allocation to these layers, since they are really out of the scope of a networking protocol. It's up to the applications that take advantage of the stack to implement these.

The reasons there aren't any examples on wikipedia is that there aren't a whole lot of examples of the OSI network model, period.

OSI has once again created a standard nobody uses, so nobody really know how one should use it.

Layers 5-6 are not commonly used in today's web applications, so you don't hear much about them. The TCP/IP stack is slightly different than a pure OSI Model.

One of the reasons TCP/IP is used today instead of OSI is it was too bloated and theoretical, the session and presentation layer aren't really needed as separate layers as it turned out.

I think that presentation layer protocols define the format of data. This means protocols like XML or ASN.1. You could argue that video/audio codecs are part of the presentation layer Although this is probably heading towards the application layer.

I can't help you with the session layer. That has always baffled me.

To be honest, there are very vague boundaries in everything above the transport layer. This is because it is usually handled by a single software application. Also, these layers are not directly associated with transporting data from A to B. Layers 4 and below each have a very specific purpose in moving the data e.g. switching, routing, ensuring data integrity etc. This makes it easier to distinguish between these layers.

Presentation Layer The Presentation Layer represents the area that is independent of data representation at the application layer - in general, it represents the preparation or translation of application format to network format, or from network formatting to application format. In other words, the layer “presents” data for the application or the network. A good example of this is encryption and decryption of data for secure transmission - this happens at Layer 6.

Session Layer When two devices, computers or servers need to “speak” with one another, a session needs to be created, and this is done at the Session Layer. Functions at this layer involve setup, coordination (how long should a system wait for a response, for example) and termination between the applications at each end of the session.

For the presentation layer :because most of communication done between heterogeneous systems (Operating Systems,programing langages,cpu architectures)we need to use a unified idepedent specification .like ANS1 ans BRE.

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Presentation VS Application layer in DDD

I have trouble drawing a clear line between Presentation and Application layer in Domain Driven Design.

Where should Controllers, Views, Layouts, Javascript and CSS files go?

Is it in the Application or the Presentation layer?

And if they go all together in the same layer, what contains the other one? Is it empty?

• architecture
• domain-driven-design

3 Answers 3

Just because someone created and named "Application Layer" and "Presentation Layer" doesn't mean your application should have them. You should create layers AFTER you created substantial amount of code which you grouped together and want to name this group for sake of communication between developers and clarity of code.

From point of DDD. Application Layer is everything that is not Domain layer. Which includes application logic, presentation and application services.

• 3 Thank you, indeed you made me realize that for my case separating Application and Presentation is useless. Simplicity first! –  Matthieu Napoli Commented Dec 24, 2012 at 9:43
• If DDD has REST API instead of UI in presentation layer, would REST API be an application or presentation layer. I am now confused, since I was sure that REST API is a presentation layer.. –  Dario Granich Commented May 6, 2016 at 13:33
• 15 Actually, DDD prescribes four layers in the following order, from higher to lower: Presentation, Application, Domain, Infrastructure. So, the Application layer does not include "presentation". Also, it's always a good idea to decide on the layers before a significant amount of code is written, as it isn't only about grouping code together but also about constraining the direction of compile-time dependencies. –  Rogério Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 17:36

There is a big difference between the application layer and the presentation layer from a DDD view point.

Although DDD centers around how to model the domain using the DDD building blocks and concepts such as bounded contexts, Ubiquitous language and so, it is still vital to clearly identify and separate the various layers in your app.

The architecture plays a big role in implementing a successful DDD app. A famous architecture that gained a lot of hype lately is the onion architecture:

In this design the UI/Presentation layer and the application layer are clearly separated. Merging the 2 together introduces tight coupling between 2 layers that have clear separate concerns and responsibilities.

The Presentation layer should only house presentation logic. Avoid Smart UIs that know too much. This mainly houses the MVC's Controllers and views in addition to CSS, JS, templates, forms and everything that relates to response and request objects.

The actions issued through presentation are delegated to the application layer through commands. The application layer contains the application logic. It normally maps to a use case. It contains WHAT the system should do to satisfy a use case. A typical application service will ask a repository to return an aggregate then invoke an action on that aggregate.

Have a look at the sample project from Vaughn Vernon's IDDD

• 2 +1. This is how i've implemented my project. Immediately, i was able to make gains by doing so. Since I abstracted to an application layer, I was able to have multiple presentation layers. For example, our web api and our web site both consume the application layer which saved a lot of time and duplicated code since my web app doesn't have to frame messaging to and from the web api and it keeps all of the logic in sync between the two. –  Sinaesthetic Commented Jan 21, 2016 at 1:47
• Where are entry point and composition root placed? I always thought it was a responsibility of Application layer. But now it looks like this is Presentation layer. –  Denis535 Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 22:00

Domain Driven Design has nothing to do with either Presentation layer or Application layer. DDD is a methodology whose main focus is on the Domain layer. That is, DDD does not impose any constraints regarding any other layer except for the Domain layer and Your question as well could be asked in the context of any other methodology.

That being said, it's very common to use a four-layer architecture for DDD applications. Here's an example of one such application showing the layers and their intended use: DDDSample Architecture . So, if you choose to use this architecture your views and layouts would go to the Interfaces layer and the controllers, if interface-independent, would go to the Application layer.

You might as well choose any other kind of architecture, as I've said DDD does not impose constraints. There are many MVC frameworks out there that have different structures and yet could also be used for DDD applications. Then, of course, you would place Your views and layouts accordingly.

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